Focusing on mostly U.S. athletes, Cline-Ransome offers snapshots of some revolutionary athletes who brought change to the gender makeup of sports.
Organized by date of birth, starting with Constance Applebee, a British immigrant who, in the early 1900s, brought field hockey to U.S. college campuses as a women’s sport, and ending with present-day baseball star Mo’ne Davis, this showcases a small selection of women athletes in successive double-page spreads. The design is flashy, but it also gets in the way of the book’s effectiveness. Each bio includes a full-page photo with an inspirational quote printed over it in cursive type; these are unreferenced, often decontextualized, and sometimes confusing. Within the bios, the writing is engaging, with ample use of direct quotes by and about athletes, capturing their personalities and achievements. There is no introduction, however, and with no statement of scope or mission, it leaves readers to wonder why these specific athletes and facts were chosen. The hard-to-read white text on brightly colored backgrounds is at times anecdotal, and with no source notes or any kind of bibliographic references, readers cannot follow up or verify details. Each bio ends midcareer, but a backmatter section titled “After the Whistle” gives a wrap-up of each athlete’s life. Unfortunately, the absence of pagination will make it hard for young readers to cross-reference these with the main bios, and it is only here where the athletes’ more controversial sides come to light.
Multiple design flaws make this a hard pass. (Collective biography. 10-14)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6453-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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Advice on writing from one of the best writers around.
“I’m a writer and I’m on your side,” Gantos says, as if he’s putting an arm around a young writer’s shoulder and guiding them through a door to a new life. With a snappy voice, his own funny ink drawings, and expertise drawn from a career full of great books, he covers just about everything: where to find ideas and characters, how to structure a story, why to keep a journal, and even what to write with. Every step of the way he includes examples from his own writing. As humorous as he is, Gantos is authoritative and serious about his craft, careful to include every building block for constructing a good story—characters, setting, problem, action, crisis, resolution, and the need for a double ending (physical and emotional). Chapter 2 (“Getting Started”) ought to be read by all teachers and parents: it’s a manifesto on how to raise a reader (and writer) by reading aloud excellent picture books to young children and placing good books in the hands of children as they get older, and he offers a handy list of just what some of those books should be. While his list of picture books is not a particularly diverse one, the middle-grade titles suggested are nicely inclusive.
A standout among writing guides, valuable for its sage and friendly encouragement and for the sheer fun of hanging out with Jack. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-30456-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Caldecott Medalist McCully delves into the lives of extraordinary American women.
Beginning with the subject of her earlier biography Ida M. Tarbell (2014), McCully uses a chronological (by birth year) structure to organize her diverse array of subjects, each of whom is allotted approximately 10 pages. Lovely design enhances the text with a full-color portrait of each woman and small additional illustrations in the author/illustrator’s traditional style, plenty of white space, and spare use of dynamic colors. This survey provides greater depth than most, but even so, some topics go troublingly uncontextualized to the point of reinforcing stereotype: “In slavery, Black women had been punished for trying to improve their appearance. Now that they were free, many cared a great deal about grooming”; “President Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to report to internment camps to keep them from providing aid to the enemy Japanese forces.” Of the 21 surveyed, one Japanese-American woman (Patsy Mink) is highlighted, as are one Latinx woman (Dolores Huerta), one Mohegan woman (Gladys Tantaquidgeon), three black women (Madam C.J. Walker, Ella Baker, and Shirley Chisholm), four out queer white women (Billie Jean King, Barbara Gittings, Jane Addams, and Isadora Duncan; the latter two’s sexualities are not discussed), two Jewish women (Gertrude Berg and Vera Rubin), and three women with known disabilities (Addams, Dorothea Lange, and Temple Grandin).
Despite its not insignificant flaws, this book provides insights into the lives of important women, many of whom have otherwise yet to be featured in nonfiction for young readers. (sources) (Collective biography. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-01991-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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